SAGINAW -- A doctor who travels northern Michigan to certify medical marijuana patients said Republican legislation meant to tighter restrictions and end confusion over Michigan’s medical marijuana law will “gut” the act and “hurt patients.”

“It’s one of those bills that sounds like a wonderful idea but in practice is unworkable and will hurt patients,” Townsend said.

Townsend estimates about 2,200 of the state’s 35,000 active physicians have OK’d a marijuana certification, with about 55 doctors handling most of the cases statewide. Many hospitals ban doctors from writing patient certifications, and physicians have discharged patients from a practice if they use medical marijuana, he said.

“The problem is the doctors are refusing to write the certification because they are afraid,” he said.

Townsend said he’s certified many patients who were steered away from primary care physicians who refused to help.

“I want to see it done right. That’s why I got involved,” he said.

A medical marijuana clinic that doesn’t keep records should be shut down, he said, but “to swing the pendulum the other way and say you must be treating the patient for a year, that’s equally bad.”

He said he’s found it’s easier to wean patients off prescribed narcotics using medical marijuana.

“I’ve never seen healthier Crohn’s patients,” he said. “I’ve seen it stop seizures in front of me.”

The doctor said he could only support Kahn’s legislation if all physicians were held to the same standards, such as, for example, when they write prescriptions for a drug like OxyContin, a potentially addictive analgesic used to treat chronic pain. Secondly, Townsend said, the law would have to require a physician to write a medical marijuana certification if a patient requests one and has a qualifying condition.

Kahn said marijuana shouldn’t be compared to prescribed narcotics.

“I don’t think all narcotics are the same, if for no other reason than those drugs are held to a certain prescription standard,” he said.